The Town: A Novel of the Snopes Family

The story of Flem Snopes' ruthless struggle to take over the town of Jefferson, Mississippi, this is the second volume of Faulkner's trilogy about the Snopes family, his symbol for the grasping, destructive element in the post-bellum South.

The Hamlet

The Hamlet, the first novel of Faulkner's Snopes trilogy, is both an ironic take on classical tragedy and a mordant commentary on the grand pretensions of the antebellum South and the depths of its decay in the aftermath of war and Reconstruction. It tells of the advent and the rise of the Snopes family in Frenchman's Bend, a small town built on the ruins of a once-stately plantation.

All the Pretty Horses

John Grady Cole is the last bewildered survivor of long generations of Texas ranchers. Finding himself cut off from the only life he has ever wanted, he sets out for Mexico with his friend, Lacey Rawlins. Befriending a third boy on the way, they find a country beyond their imagining: barren and beautiful, rugged yet cruelly civilised.... A place where dreams are paid for in blood.

Lord Jim

The story tells of Jim, a young, good-looking, genial, and naive water-clerk on the Patna, a cargo ship plying Asian waters. One night, when the ship collides with an obstacle and begins to sink, acting on impulse, Jim jumps overboard and lands in a lifeboat, which happens to be bearing the unscrupulous captain and his cohorts away from the disaster.

Suttree

No discussion of great modern authors is complete without mention of Cormac McCarthy, whose rare and blazing talent makes his every work a true literary event. A grand addition to the American literary canon, Suttree introduces readers to Cornelius Suttree, a man who abandons his affluent family to live among a dissolute array of vagabonds along the Tennessee river.

Underworld

Nick Shay and Klara Sax knew each other once, intimately, and they meet again in the American desert. He is trying to outdistance the crucial events of his early life, haunted by the hard logic of loss and by the echo of a gunshot in a basement room. She is an artist who has made a blood struggle for independence.

shirley says:"A modern classic - read it"

Publisher's Summary

The Mansion tells of Mink Snopes, whose archaic sense of honor brings about the downfall of his cousin Flem. "For all his concern with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man," noted Ralph Ellison. "Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics."

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of William Faulkner's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview - where James Atlas interviews James Lee Burke about the life and work of William Faulkner - begins as soon as the audiobook ends.

Barrett did a wonderful job with Mink's voice, and his Flem was chilling. I didn't love his interpretation of Linda's deaf woman voice, but it was an okay choice and Barrett was consistent. Really a very, very good reading.

If you could rename The Mansion, what would you call it?

The entire Snopes trilogy should be read or listened to as one book, The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion.

Any additional comments?

Faulkner closes the books on the wonderful characters he's created in the previous two books: Gavin, Linda, Flem, Ratliff, Chick, and Mink. After two books, he delivers a solid and engrossing finale. It is possible to listen to this as a stand alone, for there is enough recounting to bring one up to speed. I did not find this redundant, as some do, because Faulkner always finds a slightly different angle to view it from. For instance, we get a recap of The Sound and the Fury that tells that incredibly complex and tragic tale from an amusing and detached angle that let's you have even one more look at one of the great books in English.

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